Mumbai civic body opens first public EV charging station, 25 more on cards

A total of 72 EVs can be charged in a span of 24 hours at the facility and the cost of charging will be ₹15 per unit. In general, it takes around 20 to 30 units for an EV to be fully charged, so the total charging cost would be between ₹200 and ₹400.

Mumbai suburban guardian minister Aaditya Thackeray on Tuesday inaugurated city’s first public electric vehicle (EV) charging station at Kohinoor Public Parking Lot (PPL) in Dadar, operated by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). According to BMC officials, another 25 such EV charging stations are expected to come up in the city.

Photo for representational purpose only. (FILE)

Thackeray on Tuesday tweeted, “This is very encouraging as we move in the direction of making Maharashtra electric vehicle-friendly. We had announced our state’s electric vehicle (EV) policy about a month ago. It is heartening to witness such efforts from all fronts. This is one of the many steps, over the next few months we want to ensure that every PPL has an electric charging station.”

According to BMC officials, there are two types of EV chargers of which one is DC charger, that is known as a fast charger, which charges a vehicle in around 60 to 110 minutes, and the other is AC charger in which an EV is charged within six to seven hours. At the Kohinoor PPL, BMC has installed two DC chargers that will charge four vehicles at a time, and three slow chargers that will charge three vehicles at a time. The charging station will be available 24x7.

A total of 72 EVs can be charged in a span of 24 hours at the facility and the cost of charging will be ₹15 per unit. In general, it takes around 20 to 30 units for an EV to be fully charged, so the total charging cost would be between ₹200 and ₹400. A fully-charged EV can be driven for around 140km to 170km.

BMC has around 26 PPLs in the city and the civic body is planning to install such EV charging stations at all of them in the coming months.

Apart from the 26 PPLs, BMC also operates several on-street parking lots in the city. Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner, said, “Not just for on-street parking lots, but we are also going to explore mobile EV charging station. By this, a charging station can be installed inside a vehicle and via that point any electric vehicle can be charged on the road. This is even done in European cities.”